The 2025 extramural research funding program supports research on following two programmatic areas: (1) high effective marginal tax rates, also known as benefit cliffs; and (2) refugee resettlement programs.
Benefit Cliffs
Estimating Effective Marginal Tax Rates with Administrative Records

Matthew Unrath, Assistant Professor, Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California
Child Care Subsidy Policy Changes and Parental Employment and Earnings Outcomes



Colleen Heflin, Professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
Taryn Morrissey, Professor, Department of Public Administration and Policy, School of Public Affairs, American University
Clay Fannin, National Poverty Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison (in residence at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
Study of Intervention Targeting Low-Income Families in Tennessee

Karen Chatfield, Director, Family Economic Security and Associate Director, NCCP, National Center for Children in Poverty, Bank Street Graduate School of Education
Addressing Benefit Cliffs in Child Care Subsidy Programs: An Actionable Case Study of Virginia’s Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Block Grant Program



Le Wang, Professor, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech
Isabel Bradburn, Research Director, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences
Yang Jiao, Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting, Economics, and Finance, Texas A&M University-Texarkana
Evaluating the Impact of Ohio’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Sliding Scale Policy on Economic Stability and Employment Outcomes in Cuyahoga County, Ohio

Robert Fischer, Professor, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University
Refugee Resettlement Programs
Refugee Resettlement, Economic Self-Sufficiency and Well-Being: Using Mixed Methods to Understand the Relationship between Refugees’ Migration Ecologies and Outcomes



Irma Arteaga, Associate Professor, Truman School of Government and Public Affairs, University of Missouri
Lisa Dorner, Professor, Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis,University of Missouri
Emily Crawford-Ross, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis,University of Missouri
Understanding the Role of Pre- and Post-Migration Experiences in Refugee Adjustment: A Framework for Mitigating Stressors and Promoting Well-Being


Aimee Hilado, Assistant Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago
Ming-Te Wang, Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago
Refugee Resettlement and Economic Integration: Bridging Data Gaps for Policy Insights


Marwa AlFakhri, Associate Policy Researcher, RAND
Laura Bellows, Associate Policy Researcher, RAND